FUDcon LATAM 2011 - Panamá

Local Team

Brief description of the city.

Panama City (Spanish: Panamá) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal Panama City is the political and administrative center of the country. Panama has been for 8 years one of the top 5 places for retirement in the world according to International Living Magazine.

Panama City is also an important hub for international banking and commerce. It has an advanced communications service, Internet use is widespread.

Panama City was chosen to be the American Capital of Culture for the year 2003, what adds an incredible cultural center for our ambassadors.

Ciudad del Saber - City of Knowledge

The City of Knowledge is the cornerstone for that development based on innovation, entrepreneurial culture and sustainability. In 1994, Panamanian industrialist Fernando Eleta Almarán proposed the creation of a Socratic Square, a center for knowledge exchange, in the so-called Reverted Areas, and turning what was then the Panama Canal College into the University of the Americas.

Major local airports and their distance from lodging and venue.

Tocumen International Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto Internacional de Tocumen) (IATA: PTY, ICAO: MPTO) is an international airport located 15 miles (24 km) from Panama City, Panama. In 2006, it underwent a major expansion and renovation program in order to modernize and improve its facilities. It is currently the only airport in Central America with two runways for use and is also the largest airport in the country.

Tocumen Internation Airport is a regional hub for commercial flights heading to and from The Caribbean, South America, North America and Central America. Also, the European cities of Madrid and Amsterdam are served.

Tocumen International Airport is also the home airport of Copa Airlines, and our local ambassadors can get special prices for flights

Private ways of transportation can be used if they are needed.

Outline of local mass transit.

Panama has an extensive and efficient, form of public transportation consisting of colorful painted buses colloquially known as diablo rojo. There is also a bus terminal near the airport which together with the airport serves as the main transport hub for the rest of the country.

Panamá will have a citywide metro system initially 14 km long, stretching across the city for next year. This new metro system along with the Metrobus propel the city and country toward Panama's goal of entering the first world.

Description of proposed lodging and estimated costs along with a written agreement from lodging specifying rates

Type B Accommodation Villas
At these villas you can arrange for nightly stays and you can rent individual or shared rooms. They are ideal for students or temporary visitors to programs developed at CDS. These villas are equipped with the essentials.

Characteristics:
Type B villas have three bedrooms with two beds each, all of them with ceiling fans. The living room has a telephone, television, and ceiling fan. The kitchen includes a microwave oven, fridge, cutlery, tableware and a coffee maker, Internet.

Prices go from USD$20 to USD$35. (this can be also part of Ciudad del Saber sponsorship)

Hostal
City of Knowledge, closes hostal is the Clayton Hostel, rates vary depending of shared or private rooms from 20 to 40 dls including taxes [Clayton Hostel]

Brief description of on the ground resources and their experience with FUDcon/other large events.

This is one of the most active sections in the City of Knowledge. With an auditorium that can seat 500 people and the most complete technological platform in the region for interactive development of new forms of learning in its Digital Classroom, the City of Knowledge Convention Center has plenty of possibilities for holding your event, meeting, seminar, graduation ceremony, congress, fair or videoconference, among other things.

Even if Panamá hasn't held a FUDcon event ever, they have held events like last minidebconf, Flisol and SFD. Also, like all CentralAmerica countries are really near, we can count with almost all LATAM (CentralAmerica and top of SouthAmerica) people resources, gather for help for a really small us$ amount. Will be an excellent oportunity to gather a good number of contributors.

Auditorium

The auditorium may be used as a single space or as three, because it can be divided into modules. It covers a total of 465 m2 (5,005 square feet) and can seat approximately 500 people. Rental of this auditorium includes central air conditioning, telephone access, Internet, basic furniture, and cleaning service.

Videoconference Room

This room is equipped with a Tandberg 6000 educator. VC speed is 128 to 384 kbps, with ISDN.IP communication. This room seats 90 people.

Meeting Room and Offices

As part of the comprehensive services and supplementary spaces at the Convention Center, we have a small meeting room for 10 people and three individual offices for support during events.

Dining Room

We can provide you with tables and chairs for your congress or seminar, as well as a fully equipped kitchen so that a catering team may work without any problems.

Notation of internet connectivity options for both hotel and conference venue.

Ciudad del Saber has excellent telecommunications, IT and educational technology services, including an intelligent high-tech center with the required capacity for teleconferences, distance learning, fast internet connections, and other services.

Outline of proximate restaurant locations.

There are small restaurants and convenience stores close to the convention center around 3 blocks from it.

Ciudad del saber is at 10 min from Ciudad de Panamá's downtown. So all kind of foods can be found.

Deadlines for event reservation, etc.

First meeting with Ciudad del Saber will be held Monday August, 09; info will be updated next week

Pros and Cons of the proposed location.

Pros

As Panamá is in the middle of LATAM and is a financial center, travels, hotels and services are really cheap to be a more atractive destination.

All CentralAmerica countries have easy access to Panamá; so most of them can travel by bus, will help to decrese the traveling budget and help to bring more people to FUDcon.

Ciudad del Saber has a huge list of aliances that can represent a benefit to our community. This list includes all Panamá universities, several governamental agency, Alliance Française, Smithsonian Research Institute, Science and Technology for Development Iberoamerican Program, Latin American Social Sciences Institute, National Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions of Mexico and others. See complete list here